POZZOLANA PRAIRIE. 



615 



dominions is indigo ; they also yield sugar, coffee, 

 cocoa, tobacco, mahogany wood, dye-stuffs, &c 

 See the Sketch of the Mosquito Shore, including the 

 Territory of Poyais (Edinburgh, 1824), by Strange- 

 way, aid. to the cacique. 



POZZOLANA, in natural history, is a kind of 

 substance formed of volcanic ashes. When mixed 

 with a small portion of lime, it quickly hardens ; 

 and this induration takes place even under water. 

 This singular property of becoming petrified under 

 water, renders it peculiarly valuable as a cement, 

 in the erection of moles, and other buildings, in 

 maritime situations. 



POZZUOLI ; the ancient Puteoli. See Naples, 

 City and Environs of. 



PR A DO. See Madrid. 



PR A DON, JEAN NICOLAS, a poet, born at 

 Rouen, died at Paris in 1698. His tragedies were 

 received on their first appearance with great 

 applause, and gained him the friendship of distin- 

 guished persons, among whom were St Evremont 

 and Mad. de Sevigne. Pradon even ventured to 

 appear as a rival of Racine, having attempted a 

 tragedy on the same subject on which the latter 

 had already written. His Phedre et Hippolyte was 

 brought out in 1677, and for some time was actually 

 preferred to that of Racine ; but it has been long 

 forgotten. His Regulus and Tamerlane are more 

 known. Boileau made Pradon, who was, indeed, 

 a very moderate poet, and extremely ignorant and 

 arrogant, the subject of his satire. His dramatic 

 pieces were published in 2 vols., 1744. 



PRAETOR, PRAETORIANS. See Pretor, Pre- 

 torians. 



PRAGA ; a fortified town of the kingdom of 

 Poland (waywodeship of Masovia), on the right 

 bank of the Vistula, opposite Warsaw, of which it 

 may be considered as a suburb. It is connected 

 with Warsaw by a bridge of boats, and contains 

 3000 inhabitants. After the battle of Macziewice, 

 in which Kosciuscko (q. v.) was made prisoner 

 (October 10, 1794), Suwaroff advanced against 

 Praga, the last bulwark of Poland, into which 

 20,000 men had thrown themselves. Zajonczek 

 received the command of the garrison, 30,000 

 strong, which occupied a fortified camp before 

 Praga. November 4, Suwaroff stormed Praga, 

 which was taken, after a most bloody fight ; 13,000 

 Poles covered the field of battle ; more than 2000 

 perished in the Vistula, and 14,680 were made 

 prisoners. Besides this loss, a great number of 

 peasants, women, old men, children, and infants, 

 perished in the conflict and during the pil- 

 lage. The Russian loss was trifling. Suwaroff 

 wrote to the empress from the field of battle, 

 "Hurrah! Praga! Suwaroff;" and was answered 

 as laconically, "Bravo! General field-marshal." 

 He entered Warsaw on the 9th ; and the last par- 

 tition of Poland (1795) was the consequence of the 

 fall of Praga. See Warsaw. 



PRAGMATIC SANCTION. See Sanction, 

 Pragmatic. 



PRAGUE (in German, Prag); capital of Bo- 

 hemia, on the Moldau; archiepiscopal see; lat. 

 50 5' N.j Ion. 14 24' E. ; fifty-four leagues 

 north-west of Vienna ; population (including the 

 garrison, 12,354 strong) 117,059, of whom 7400 

 are Jews, and the remainder principally Bohemians 

 (see Bohemia) and Germans. Prague contains 

 forty-six Catholic and two Protestant churches, 

 eleven male, and four female monasteries, nine 

 synagogues, and six hospitals. It is surrounded by 

 a wall and moat, and divided by the Moldau into 

 two unequal parts, which are united by a handsome 

 stone bridge of sixteen arches, 1900 feet in length. 



It consists of four divisions : the old city, comprising 

 the Jews' quarter, and the new city on the riaht 

 bank of the river, and Hradschin and Little Prague 

 (Kleinseite) on the left bank. To the south of 

 Prague lies W ischerad, an old citadel, well fortified, 

 and containing an arsenal. Although Prague is 

 well fortified, the works are too extensive, besides 

 being commanded by the neighbouring heights, to 

 sustain a long defence. The streets are, in general, 

 straight, regularly laid out, well paved, and pro- 

 vided with footpaths. The new city contains the 

 handsomest streets ; the houses are mostly built of 

 stone, in a neat style, and several of them deserve 

 the name of palaces. Among them is the palace 

 of the famous Wallenstein (q. v.), which is one of 

 the principal ornaments of the city. There are a 

 number of handsome squares, and many elegant 

 public buildings, among which are the town-house 

 and the fine Gothic cathedral, containing the tomb 

 of several Bohemian kings, and of St John 

 Nepomuk. (q. v.) The university, situated in the 

 old city, is the oldest in Germany ; it was founded, 

 in 1348, by the emperor Charles IV., and until 

 1409 was in a most flourishing condition; but, in 

 that year, the interference of the government in 

 religious matters caused the secession of several 

 thousand foreigners, and the consequent establish- 

 ment of new universities at Leipsic, Ingolstadt, 

 Rostock, and Cracow. The number of professors 

 in the university of Prague is forty-four ; of students, 

 1500; the library consists of 100,000 volumes, and 

 4000 manuscripts in the ancient and in Sclavonic 

 literature. There are several other literary and 

 scientific institutions, as three gymnasia, an academy 

 of science, &c. The manufactures of Prague are 

 not very important; they are linen, cotton, silk, 

 hats, &c. ; and government has here a great manu- 

 factory of arms, and tobacco works. It is the 

 centre of the Bohemian commerce, and of a consi- 

 derable transit trade. Of the thirty great commer- 

 cial houses, nearly half are Jewish. The general 

 appearance of the city is poor ; the lower classes 

 are in a miserable condition. Prague is the birth- 

 place of Jerome (q. v.), the disciple of Huss. (q. v.) 

 In the fifteenth century, it was troubled by the 

 persecutions of the Hussites. In 1620, the elector 

 palatine, who had been elected king of Bohemia 

 by the nation, was defeated by the emperor in the 

 battle on the White mountain (tVeisser Berg), two 

 miles from the city (see Bohemia) ; and, in 1557, 

 the city was bombarded by Frederic II. (the Great) 

 of Prussia. 



PRAIRIAL. See Calendar. 



PRAIRIE (a French word, signifying a meadow); 

 used in the United States to designate the remark- 

 able natural meadows, or plains, which are found in 

 the Mississippi Valley. Flint (Geography of the 

 Western States) classes the prairies tinder three 

 heads: !. the heathy, or bushy, which have 

 springs, and are covered with small shrubs, bushes, 

 grape-vines, &c., very common in Indiana, Illinois 

 and Missouri. 2. The dry, or rolling, generally 

 destitute of water, and almost all vegetation but 

 grass. These are the most common and extensive; 

 the traveller may wander for days in these vast and 

 nearly level plains, without wood or water, and see 

 no object rising above the plane of the horizon In 

 this kind of prairies roam immense herds of bisons. 

 3. The alluvial or wet prairies form the third and 

 smallest division ; they are covered with a rich 

 vegetation, and have a black, deep and friable soil, 

 of inexhaustible fertility. They are well adapted 

 for wheat and maize, in the proper climates. In a 

 state of nature, they are covered with tall, rank 

 grass, and, in the rainy season, are frequently over- 

 2 u2 



